Lantau Hike

My friend CC took us on an interesting hike in Eastern Lantau on Tuesday, the last day of the Easter-Ching Ming holidays.  We started from the tool booths on the airport highway, skirted the coastline for a couple of kilometres, went up to see the Vase Rock which looks more like a dog’s head from a certain angle, continued to go up over the 270 meter hill and then dropped almost straight down to the tool booths again. 

One of us who used to work in engineering at KCR/MTR pointed out to us some damage under the Kap Shui Mun Bridge (汲水門大橋).  It does not affect the structural integrity of the bridge.  But it does affect the pattern of the air flow across bridge.  

It was pointed out to us a stone pillar installed at the edge of the water near the bridge - the 定海神針 (The Pin that Pacify the Ocean).  

The bridge crosses over a busy channel of rapid, choppy waters.  The pin was installed by the builders to ensure that the gods of the waters do not get angry. 

There were many people fishing in the channel.  They might appreciate the calming effect of the pillar.  

A trawler passed between the fishing boats in the channel.  Trawling the bottom of the sea has resulted in a lot of seafood.  But it has also caused untold damage since they remove everything from the bottom indiscriminately.  Since trawling in the Hong Kong waters was banned, it has been reported that the fish and other wild life has begun to recover.  But then construction of the bridges, tunnels, new landfills, etc., are still going on.  

We admired some of the small sandy bridges, and turned up the hill.  Along the way a running poodle ran past us when we got near the big rock.  It is called 花瓶石. But it  looks more like the head of a dog.  So I am going to call it 狗頭石. 

Later, almost all the way down the other side, we saw the same dog again, again running up the hill!  Apparently they were finishing and the owners wanted to put a leash on the dog.  At that point the dog ran back up the hill.  Smart dog!

At the top of the hill (花瓶頂), we were treated to some spectacular views all around.  Particularly of the Kap Shui Mun Bridge and the Tsing Ma Bridge (青馬大橋).  

At the top of the hill, I thought I found the end of the world.  From where I stood, the stairs seemed to just disappeared at the edge of the hill.  The people ahead of me seemed to just disappeared, falling off the end of the world. 

It turned out that the hundreds of steps of stairs lead straight down to the toll booths of the airport highway.  But they are scary enough for someone afraid of heights.  I walked down gingerly, thankful for my hiking stick and good hiking shoes.  

That ended a very satisfying 4 hours.